About 30 minutes from the centre of Cape Town lies Khayelitsha, a Township, home to over 1 million residents. In the heart of Makhaza, a neighbourhood in Khayelitsha is eKhaya eKasi Art & Education Centre. It is home to The Heart of a Woman Project in South Africa, a women’s mobile photography and digital literacy initiative I founded in 2013.
Lulama, director of eKhaya eKasi Art & Education Centre, stands in front of this multi-purpose community centre in Khayelitsha.The view from the rooftop of eKhaya eKasi Art & Education Centre where I first visited in December 2012. eKhaya eKasi means ‘home in the hood’ in isiXhosa, the predominant language in this Cape Town Township. The neighbourhood has modest brick houses and informal dwellings. The informal homes are made of corrugated metal, tin and wood and residents share a communal water source and toilets. This Township was established during the apartheid era in 1985 and is Cape Town’s largest.Women at eKhaya eKasi make bracelets for Cape Town businesses. Programs that address unemployment, illiteracy, poverty, health and HIV/AIDS are offered. The skills development programs teach women, mostly mothers and grandmothers, arts, crafts and entrepreneurship. There is an on-site art boutique where participants sell their work to the tourists that visit. Sales provide revenue to the centre so the programs may continue as well as offers an opportunity for the women to generate an income so they may provide for themselves and their loved ones. Women are often the sole providers and caregivers in the Township and face challenges such as high unemployment rates, alcoholism and domestic abuse.eKhaya eKasi provides space for social services and community meetings. Women in the skills development program serve soup to residents for the Meals on Wheels program. The Elders seated in the photo met to discuss their burial society. Burial societies are designed to help ease the costs of a funeral by operating on a monthly contribution. The estimate is that two-thirds of households in townships participate. The ability to give their family a dignified burial is a significant cultural event.Veliswa, a married mother of 4 and founding member of The Heart of a Woman Project in South Africa, photographs live chickens in Khayelitsha. Inspired by the model of education and empowerment through the arts,Work clothes hang on a clothesline in an informal settlement that we photographed in Khayelitsha. Informal settlements are areas with makeshift dwellings crammed closely together. Residents do not have access to water in their homes or on their property. They must walk to get water from a communal water source and use communal toilets, which are often in disrepair.Yolanda, a married mother of 2 pauses to photograph a ‘Stop Woman Abuse’ mural on Walter Sisulu Road in Khayelitsha. Many of the fences are painted with street art and showcase anything from advertising a cal business to addressing social issues.Aviwe, a participant in The Heart of a Woman Project, photographs children in Khayelitsha as a curious resident looks on.Retsepile, a founding member of The Heart of a Woman Project, photographs an informal settlement. This settlement has an approximate population of 11,000 people.Participants, Yolanda and Esther, share a laugh as they pretend to be waiting for a bus at this Khayelitsha bus stop. We stopped to discuss the art of capturing street photos.Yolanda and Aviwe photograph the mural on a shipping container, home to Mama Blessing Hair Salon in Khayelitsha. Several small commercial shopping malls and many independently owned businesses can be found here. These companies sell their goods and services in shacks, shipping containers or simply on the sidewalk. With high unemployment rates in Khayelitsha, it is necessary to find economic opportunities. Most of the containers and shacks are painted with colourful murals.Participants walk (and dance) back to the van after two days of photographing Township Life with the goal of one of the images becoming a postcard.
A participant in The Heart of a Woman Project in South Africa folds the newest product, greeting cards. At the end of the workshop in November 2013, each participant was given 200 postcards of one of their images to sell in the on-site boutique at eKhaya eKasi. Both products are currently sold in the shop and globally through the website.The women get familiar with Hubspace Khayelitsha, a co-working environment for entrepreneurs in townships.Nwabisa, the project coordinator of The Heart of a Woman Project in South Africa, talks about the program to tourists visiting the centre with Uthando South Africa, a responsible tourism organization.Nwabisa, mother of 2 and founding member, photographs Henry at the Site C taxi rank in Khayelitsha as Thoban, a member of the Cape Town Instagram community offers some tips. On June 1, 2014, the women hosted the inaugural #InstameetEKASI in Khayelitsha with members of the Cape Town Igers (instagrammers).Henry, Site C. Photo was taken June 1, 2014, by Nwabisa N. at the inaugural InstameetEKASI. Nwabisa is one of the founding members of The Heart of a Woman Project mobile photography program at eKhaya eKasi and the coordinator of the program. She has been teaching the three newest participants since October 2014.Velisa, a founding member of The Heart of a Woman Project mobile photography program at eKhaya eKasi proudly displays a framed image of her photo of a shoe repairman in Khayelitsha. This picture is Veliswa’s series 1.0 postcard and greeting card and was taken with a donated previously owned iPhone 4s.Busisiwe, a married mother of 2, goes through her iPhone photos and shares them on social media. Each participant has their own Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts. The ladies use social media to share images of Township life and connect with supporters around the world.A collage in the shape of a heart of the women’s photos taken over the first year of The Heart of a Woman Project in South Africa. It was debuted at the 1st-anniversary photography exhibition at eKhaya eKasi on November 22, 2014.The Eza Kwantu Cultural Group performs at The Heart of a Woman Project First Anniversary Exhibition. Eza Kwantu is a local youth group of vocalists that sing in isiXhosa.“Photography is more than art; it is empowerment, it is a creative outlet, it is a voice, and it is a source of income for a group of women from a Cape Town Township”
eKhaya eKasi generates income through product sales in its on-site art boutique, business to business orders and through tourism. The art boutique focuses on handmade crafts such as shwe shwe heart ornaments and bags, bead and wire products and photography products by artists in the women’s skills development programs, from the community and other areas of South Africa.
The goal is to draw tourists into a community that did not previously have tourism, offer cultural exchange and to provide economic opportunity to the artists and residents that partner and work with the centre.
Every sale and visit offer travellers an opportunity to visit projects that are making a difference in their communities, contribute to the local economy and make a difference with your purchases.
Visiting Cape Town?
Travel with Uthando South Africa to visit eKhaya eKasi and other development projects on a half-day tour.
Stay at The Backpack, an award-winning Fair-trade hostel suitable for all ages.
Andrea is a professional travel and portrait photographer, photography educator, founder of The Heart of a Woman Project, a women's mobile photography initiative and publisher of wanderingiPhone.com. Andrea began her photography career in 2003 in Toronto, Canada. Her work has been featured on CBC, W Network, Splice Network and in national and international print and digital magazines including Shutterbug magazine.
